


Different as Day and Night

by loubloodytomlinson



Category: One Direction
Genre: M/M, ballerina!harry, larry stylinson - Freeform, skaterboy!louis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-12
Updated: 2015-04-14
Packaged: 2018-03-22 11:41:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3727519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loubloodytomlinson/pseuds/loubloodytomlinson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis was a skater and Harry was a dancer. A chance meeting in a London coffee shop may change their lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day 1

Louis was a skater down to his bones, all tattoos and Vans shoes and tight black jeans and black tops. 

Harry was a dancer in his soul, all flower crowns and pink leotards and black tights and ballet slippers.

Louis met Harry one spring day in May when they were both in line at a coffee shop, Harry getting a coffee before his afternoon dance class and Louis grabbing a cup of his favourite tea. Louis told Harry he liked his flower crown and Harry's smile could have lit up the entire room. Harry responded that he liked Louis' dagger tattoo and Louis blushed to the colour of a fresh red apple.

The boys small talked until both of their drinks were ready, Louis learned that Harry was 20 years and from Cheshire, who moved to London when he was 18 to teach ballet to young boys, his favourite colour was blue, he curls were almost always ardorned with a crown of flowers, and he liked soft music that he could easily dance to.

Harry learned that Louis was 22, originally from Doncaster and had moved to London to help run a daycare. He loved children almost as much as tattoos, his favourite colour to wear was black, but his favourite colour was the purple that the sky turns just before the sun sets, and he liked loud punk music that he could scream his heart out to.

Far too soon, their drinks were done and it was time to part ways. Louis wished Harry luck in his dance class, and Harry told Louis he hoped they'd meet again soon. And even though they'd only met for 10 minutes, Louis felt that this boy would make a big inpact on his life, and Harry knew that the boy would be important to him for some reason.


	2. Day 2

An unseasonably cold Saturday brought the second meeting of the two boys who were as opposite as day and night. Instead of meeting in the coffee shop, the boys met in the park where Louis was skating to relieve the stress of the week and Harry was sitting in the grass, weaving fake flowers into new crowns. 

Louis kicked up his board and walked over to the focused boy, plopping down onto the grass next to him. Harry looked up and smiled brightly, happy to meet up with his new friend again. Harry kept weaving and Louis sat watching, interested in how intently Harry watched what he was doing. As soon as Harry finished the crown he was working on, he reached over and set it on top of Louis head, looking at Louis like he was a literal angel. Louis in return picked up some of Harry's flowers and started lacing them together, trying to figure out how Harry did it and made them stay together. After 10 minutes of trying, he had something that sort of looked like a flower crown, though he couldn't deny that it looked like one of his 3 year olds made it, but Harry looked at it as though it was the best present in the world, and it was then that Louis realized that he was just a little bit too fond of Harry. 

Soon Harry needed to leave, as his mum was coming to visit him in London to see his class' performance on Sunday, and he stood with a shy, mumbled invitation to the performance and ran off without another word. Louis stayed sat on the grass, thinking about the boy and realizing he wouldn't miss the performance (and the chance to see Harry again) for the world.


	3. Day 3- Louis

Louis started his Sunday early, getting out of bed at 10 a.m. instead of his usual 12 p.m. Harry had stated the performance started at 2, so Louis was hoping to leave the house by 1 considering he had no idea where the dance studio was. He showered, at some breakfast, and then sat down to watch a little TV and calm himself down; but he ended up being so calmed down, he dozed off and woke up at 12:30. Still needing to fix his hair, pick out clothes and get dressed, Louis rushed off to his bedroom, cursing himself for being so lazy. He quickly quiffed his hair, hoping Harry liked it quiffed up, but also just doing it to make his hair look less flat. He called his hair good enough, and ran into his room to get dressed.

Louis felt like a pre-teen while trying to choose what to wear. He wanted something semi-formal, for Harry to respect him, he not so fancy that he looked ready for a gala, and he wanted to be comfortable in what he was wearing as well. The majority of his wardrobe was made up of band shirts and silly tees with Marvel characters or aliens on them, certainly nothing that would make him look like the type to attend a ballet recital. Yet after some digging, he managed to find a plain black button up shirt, that he figured would be enough to make it trough the day. He didn't change his signature black jeans or Vans, but he didn't need to impress anyone other than Harry anyway (and possibly Harry's mum, but he was getting a little bit ahead of himself. They had only met twice, it wasn't like they were getting married).

By the time Louis had actually chosen an outfit, it was already 1:13. Grabbing his skateboard, he bolted out of his flat and down the road to a small flower shop to buy Harry a bouquet of flowers to act as both a 'congratulations for your students performance!', and a sign that Louis' feelings for Harry might not be as platonic as Louis may have once felt. Looking at all the flowers in the shop, Louis was overwhelmed. There were daffodils the colour of autumn leaves, lilacs the colour of a sunset sky, and white roses that were dyed a shade of blue similar to the sea on a clear summers day. Louis couldn't pick out just one kind, so he decided on getting three: four of the sunset lilacs, four of the ocean roses, and four small pink flowers that he wasn't sure what they were, but they were almost the exact same shade of pink as the flower crown Harry had worn the first day they'd met. He bought the flowers and a vase, hoping to put the flowers into water as soon as he got to the studio to help keep them looking as lovely as Harry himself.

As Louis left the shop, he looked at his watch. 1:39. With no idea where to go, Louis decided to skate around in the area of the coffee shop they met at, figuring that since that's where Harry went for coffee before dance, that it could be close to the studio. Unfortunately for him, the flower shop was about 10 minutes away from the coffee shop and he was running low on time as it was. He was internally kicking himself for not asking what the name of the studio was, or where it was. 

As Louis reached the coffee shop, he looked around and finally decided to give in and ask someone if they knew of any dance studios in the area. He talked to an old woman inside of the coffee shop who told him there was a dance studio about 15 minutes away, but one road is closed so he'll have to go around and it will take him at least 25 minutes to get there. Louis looked at his watch and groaned. He only had 8 minutes until the performance started, Harry was going to see him walking in late and think he didn't care. With a 'thank you!' Yelled over his shoulder to the old woman, Louis ran out of the shop and started skating down the street, hoping to make it to the performance in at least a semi-orderly fashion.

At 2:17, Louis reached the dance studio. He walked up to the doors and...they were locked. "No, no, no, no, fuck, no, no, no!" Louis muttered. He looked around and finally saw a sign, reading "Marlin Dance Company Performance! London School of the Performing Arts Auditorium Sunday, May 14, 2:00 p.m" Louis groaned and wanted to punch himself in the face. He knew where the School of the Performing Arts was, but it was 20 minutes away, back in the direction he came from. He sighed and threw his board down, skating back the way he came an hoping Harry was too focused on his students to notice that Louis wasn't there. Louis skated as fast as he possibly could to the School of the Performing Arts, finally making it there at 2:35 and rushing it. He quietly opened the door to the auditorium, sneaking to a seat all the way in the back. There was a group of teens on stage, that Louis would guess were between the ages of 14 and 16, doing a dance that Louis didn't recognize but assumed it was from some famous ballet. Their dance was over soon, and Harry went up on stage to introduce the next group. "Alright, we've got our final group now, our age 14 to 18 elite group. Thank you to everyone for coming today! Myself and Ms. Marlin will be around after the performance so feel free to come up and speak to us. Enjoy the performance!" The lights went down on stage and and a group of 8 people danced on. Louis was absolutely mesmerized by the skill of the dancers. It was hard to believe that some of them were barely teenagers and still danced so well. As soon as the dancers left the stage, the entire crowd erupted into applause, some even giving the dancers a standing ovation. Louis raced forward to try to get to Harry but he was too late, by the time he reached the front of the auditorium, Harry was surrounded in a crowd of 30 people; parents, dancers, and other people from the community just wanting to praise the man. Louis stood to the side, but after 20 minutes of not being able to wedge into the crowd, Louis saw that it might just be best to leave the flowers where Harry would get them and leave. He went into the backstage area and set the flowers down on a table, with a note stating "Harry- your dancers were fantastic, as are you. Maybe we could meet up to talk about it when you're not surrounded by tons of adoring fans ;) Love, Louis", with his address scrawled on the bottom. He grabbed his skateboard and walked out of the school, hoping Harry would get the note and show up at his flat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Harry's side of the recital should be up tomorrow or Tuesday! I'm going to try to write during work while the kids are sleeping, but I'll need to type it all up, so expect it on Tuesday!


	4. Day 3- Harry

Harry woke up at 8:00 the next morning, partially due to his nerves and partially so he had enough time to get ready for the day. Even though the performance didn't start until 2:00, Harry needed to get there by 12:30 to set up and get his dancers warmed up. Harry was very excited for his dancers to showcase their abilities, but he was also extremely nervous. This was his first year teaching dancers older than age 9. This year, he taught three classes; the age 3-6 group, the age 7-9, and he co-taught the 14-18 elite group with the owner of the dance studio, Mrs. Irene Marlin. Not only was he nervous about himself showing that he actually deserves the job he has (he's had 3 ex-professional male ballerinas try to steal his job out from under him in the past two years), he was nervous that his students would mess up and beat themselves up about it. These kids meant the world to him, even though some of them were only 2 years younger than him. Any mistakes would hurt him just as much as they hurt the kids.

Harry spent the first 2 hours of his morning pacing around his flat, worrying about the day. He wished he had someone to talk to, someone that would reassure him that everything would be fine, but his mum had gone out shopping, saying she would see him for the performance later, and his best friends were both at work. The one person he truly wanted to talk to was Louis, but he didn't think to ask him for his number before he ran off yesterday. He truly hoped that he would show up the performance today, but he was expecting him not to. He probably had much better things to do than go to a dance recital.

At 10:00, Harry finally decided to start getting ready. He showered and wrapped his hair into a towel before heading into his bedroom to try to find something to wear. He put on a dance belt and leotard first, since he would need to warm up alongside the kids and it'd be easier to not have to change once he got to his destination. Standing in front of his closet, he first picked out black jeans, then stood in front of his mirror, holding different colours and patterns of button down shirts in front of his body, trying to choose what would look best. He finally decided on a bright blue button down, putting it on and buttoning it so it covered all of his leotard, but so that it wasn't buttoned all the day. He put on black boots, and threw his ballet shoes into a bag, along with boxers so he could change out of his dance gear before the actual performance, and his wallet so he could grab coffee on his way. He checked his watch and saw it was 11:30. Unwrapping his hair from the towel, he quickly fixed it and grabbed the flower crown Louis made him yesterday and putting it on his head. It wasn't his best looking on, but he wanted to be wearing it in case Louis showed up.

He left the house soon after, needing to run to the dance studio before he went to the London School of the Performing Arts, where the performance was held, as he left the box of extra costume (the young kids had a tendency to forget pieces) and CDs there at the end of the day on Friday. Both places were about 15 minutes from his house, so it would take him about 45 minutes in total to get to the school, plus the time it took him to get coffee. He turned on his iPod while he walked, listening to Ed Sheeran and choreographing dances in his head. He quickly ran into the dance studio to grab the box of costumes and CDs, then headed over to the coffee shop where he met Louis (yes, he was satisfying his need for caffeine, but he would have been lying if he said he wasn't hoping that Louis would be there again).

After getting his coffee, he saw he was running a little bit late. "Oh no" he muttered to himself, speed walking all the way to where the performance was held. He needed to be there before the students to open the doors so they could get in. Luckily, it looked like he beat everyone there, so he had time to start setting up. He needed to put the CD's in the correct order for the sound man, and set up a warm up room backstage for the kids. A few kids straggled in while he was setting up, and he told them to just start stetching and that he'd be ready for them in a few minutes. "Alright! Break into your age groups and start stretching! Tell anyone who gets here to do the same. Everyone needs to stretch for 5 minutes before warm up. In five minutes, I'll take the 3-6 age group. Elites, you'll start warming up yourselves. Alright, get stretching!" Harry told the kids, then used the kids stretching time to finish setting up. 

By 1:15, all of the kids were warmed up and eagerly awaiting performance time. Harry watched all the kids perform their routines, and was happily to see that aid from a few small mistakes, all of the groups did amazing. "Alright, everyone except the age 3-6 group, part to the sides. Little ones, you're up first. You're going to do great, I'm so proud of all of you." Four of the little kids ran up to hug Harry after he said that, and he quickly rushed them back into line before the curtains opened, Harry went out to be able to watch them from the front row. He quickly scanned the crowd for Louis before going to his seat and felt his heart sink. He knew Louis wouldn't show up.

By the time the second to last group was on stage, Harry had lost all hope of Louis coming. Half way through their routine, Harry heard the auditorium doors open and looked to see Louis rushing to the back of the auditorium. Harry felt like his heart burst was going to burst through his chest from now happy he was. He looked back at the stage to see it was almost time for him to make the final speech. He rushed up to the stage as soon as the music stopped."Alright, we've got our final group now, our age 14 to 18 elite group. Thank you to everyone for coming today! Myself and Ms. Marlin will be around after the performance so feel free to come up and speak to us. Enjoy the performance!" Harry spoke, and motioned for the dancers to come on stage. He went back down to where he would be meeting with people after the performance. As soon as the elite performance was over, Harry was surrounded by people. There was people surrounding him for 45 minutes before he could finally get away. He looked around but didn't sees Louis anywhere. "Of course, he wouldn't stay around for almost an hour to see me" Harry mumbled sadly. He went back to the dressing room area to grab his stuff, when he saw a bouquet of flowers on the table. Harry walked over and looked at the note. "Harry- your dancers were fantastic, as are you. Maybe we could meet up to talk about it when you're not surrounded by tons of adoring fans ;) Love, Louis". Harry was so happy he actually squealed. He quickly stuffed the note in his pocket and let the school, heading right over to Louis' flat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this on my tablet, please let any spelling and punctuation mistakes slide!

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work so please don't be too critical!


End file.
